religion-in-iran

"The demon But is that which they worship in India and in his image a spirit is resident which is worshipped as Bodasf."

"It seems noteworthy, with this in mind, that Buddhism survived longer in Iran than it did in the South-Asian subcontinent, although we know little about the form of Buddhism that was professed for about fifty years by the Mongols of Iran until the time of Arghun (1284-91) and his son Ghazan (1295-1304). Iran sheltered a large number of Buddhist 'Bakhshis' and was strewn with Buddhist establishments. When Ghazan converted to Islam in 1295, this was accompanied by the destruction of the Buddhist places of worship and the migration of many Buddhists to Kashmir, India, China, Tibet, and Uyghuristan. But it can be shown that Buddhism lingered in Iran for some time longer, until the fourteenth century."

"A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Bojnourdi, has declared, “Only Baha’is ‘who cooperate with Israel’ or ‘advocate against Islam’ are not entitled to citizenship rights, and . . . they still have human rights even though they cannot take advantage of ‘privileges,’ such as going to university in Iran.”"

"Journalist Ramita Navai has observed: Despite the revolution, Iranians are inordinately proud of the great Persian empire, and it’s still part of the culture. The biggest festival in Iran is Persenia, which is Zoroastrian. It’s the first day of spring and has nothing to do with religion. Although it’s interesting, because the state has got involved with these pagan, Zoroastrian traditions and has tried to hijack them and claim them for their own. Like the early Christians did with pagan, Celtic mythology. So, for example, at Persian New Year, you set a table called haftsin. People lay out seven objects all starting with the letter sin. . . . Most secular Iranians will also put out a book of Hafiz’s poetry. But the state encourages Iranians to put the Koran on the table. There is also chaharshanbeh souri, a fire festival celebrated on the last Tuesday night of the year. Bonfires are lit in the hope that fire and light will bring health and happiness. Young Iranians go crazy, setting off fireworks and jumping over the fires while reciting an old Zoroastrian saying. It’s a bit like Guy Fawkes night, in England. The state always gets nervous about this fire festival. But try as they might, they haven’t been able to stamp it out. It’s an ancient Zoroastrian tradition."

"“It’s really one of the most obvious cases of state persecution,” Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, said about the treatment of Baha’is in Iran at a United Nations conference in Geneva this year. “It’s basically state persecution, systematic and covering all areas of state activities, the various systems from family law provisions to schooling, education, security.”"

"In November 2005, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution denounced Zoroastrians as “sinful animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption”; t"

"Kourash Niknam, the Zoroastrian member of the Majlis, said in 2006 that being a Zoroastrian in Iran was like being a foreigner in one’s native land: “We don’t have the right to make programmes about our religion. I have no platform on radio or television to go and speak about Zoroastrianism. We cannot get any budget for building a new fire temple when mosques are being built one after another.”"

"When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005, he vowed, “I will stop Christianity in this country.”7"

"The Christian organization Open Doors notes that Christian proselytizing is strictly forbidden in Iran, “especially when it occurs in Persian languages—from evangelism to Bible training, to publishing Scripture and Christian books or preaching in Farsi. In 2014, at least 75 Christians were arrested. More Christians were sentenced to prison and pressure on those detained increased, including physical and mental abuse.”73"

"The UN’s Ahmed Shaheed has noted, “As of 1 January 2015, at least 92 Christians remain in detention in the country allegedly due to their Christian faith and activities. In 2014 alone, 69 Christian converts were reportedly arrested and detained for at least 24 hours across Iran. Authorities reportedly continued to target the leaders of house churches, generally from Muslim backgrounds. Christian converts also allegedly continue to face restrictions in observing their religious holidays.”74"

"Christian activist Marlene Mathew has stated that “the Iranian government actively pursues Christian ministers and believers, placing them in prison under trumped up political charges, or simply killing them in accordance with their law. These people are innocent and need to be set free. . . . In recent weeks the Iranian government has openly declared that ‘Christians are enemies’ who are a major threat to the state.”75 She adds, “Iran has one of the highest number of spies per capita in the world, believers are often in fear of speaking openly lest they awaken the wrath of the religious police.”76"

"Sometimes Christians can awaken the wrath of the government simply by being Christians. As Easter 2015 approached, according to the NCRI, “the Iranian regime’s State Security Forces (police) sent threatening letters to churches in the city of Urumiyeh warning them against holding gatherings for Easter celebrations. According to the directive sent by the force’s Office of Public Building, Christians have only been allowed to hold Easter celebrations in their homes.”"

"In June 2015 an Iranian court sentenced eighteen converts from Islam to Christianity to prison on charges that included evangelism. Morad Mokhtari, a convert who left Iran in 2006, said of converts to Christianity that “Iranian religious authorities prefer that they leave Iran because the authorities can’t control them. Just their name is evangelism. Imagine someone says he’s a Christian and has a Muslim name.”"

"A leading Shi’ite authority in Iran, Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh, actually defended the idea that a non-Muslim’s life was worth less than that of a Muslim in his 1970 critique of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution. . . . Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash. . . . Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim . . . then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain. . . . Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them.83"

"“On reaching Dawar, [Ibn Samurah] surrounded the enemy in the mountain of Zur, where there was a famous Hindu temple.... As he entered victoriously into the sacred precincts of the temple, also called Zur or Zun, he noticed an idol of gold with two rubies for eyes. The zealous Muslim at once cut off the hands of the idol with one stroke and plucked the eyes out of their sockets but then returned everything to the priest, remarking that he 'only wanted to demonstrate how powerless was his idol to do either good or evil'."

"“…Their idol of Zur was of gold, and its eyes were two rubies. The zealous Musalmans cut off its hands and plucked out its eyes, and then remarked to the Marzaban how powerless was his idol to do either good or evil…”"

"Who routed infidel armies and destroyed them with bloody slaughter? Who put out and made cold the sacred flame in Iran?"

"Submit to Islam and be safe. Or agree to the payment of the Jizya (tax), and you and your people will be under our protection, else you will have only yourself to blame for the consequences, for I bring the men who desire death as ardently as you desire life."

"Khalid wrote more harshly to the Sassanian rulers: “From Khalid b. al-Walid to the rulers of the Persians: Peace be upon whosoever follows right guidance.”30 This was to become the mandated greeting for Muslims toward non-Muslims; when greeting a fellow Muslim, Muslims were to say, “Peace be upon you.” But to a non-Muslim, a Muslim was to wish peace only upon “whoever follows right guidance,” that is, the Muslims. Khalid continued: Praise be to God, Who has scattered your servants, wrested your sovereignty away, and rendered your plotting weak. Whoever worships the way we worship, faces the direction we face in prayer, and eats meat slaughtered in our fashion, that person is a Muslim and obtains the benefits we enjoy and takes up the responsibilities we bear. Now then, when you receive this letter, send me hostages and place yourself under my protection. Otherwise, by Him other than Whom there is no god, I will most certainly send against you a people who love death just as you love life. The Sassanian rulers soon realized these were not empty words. Khalid stormed through Persia, offering the Persians the same ultimatum: convert to Islam, pay the jizya, or face war. He defeated the Persians in numerous battles."

"With Persia largely subdued, Umar declared proudly: “The Empire of the Magians has become extinct this day and from now on they will not possess a span of land to injure the Muslims in any way.”"

"It was the swift inheritance of a preexisting state—not Islam—that led to the demise of early democracy in the Middle East. As the Islamic conquerors spread outward from Arabia, they soon encountered more densely populated lands where people practiced an intensive and settled form of agriculture, a radically different environment from Arabia. In the territory that is now Iraq these lands were part of the Sasanian Empire, and in the century or so before the Islamic conquests the Sasanians had succeeded in creating a centralized bureaucracy to collect taxes from a fertile agricultural region that would come to be known as the Sawad—“The Black Land.” Faced with this inheritance, after deposing the Sasanian leadership, the Arab conquerors co-opted their bureaucracy. The result, in spite of protests, was that caliphs could now govern in an autocratic manner with little need for consultation. Succession to the caliphate became hereditary."

"The following are some of the [miraculous] events of that night, which became to everybody as plain as daylight : The disappearance of the water from the lake Sadah ; the overflowing of the river Samavah, which is one of the watercourses of Syria, and had been dry during one thousand years. … During that night also the palace of Naushirvan, the strength of which will be mentioned in the record of the Khalifate of Abu Ja’far Manssur the Abbaside, so trembled that fourteen of its pinnacles fell to the ground. This event filled the mind of Kesra with terror and apprehension, which, however, he did not communicate to anyone, until at last he one day convoked his intimate friends and courtiers, and wished to do so, when all of a sudden news arrived from Estakhar that the fire of the chief temple of Persia, which had been burning for a thousand years, had become extinguished. Having searched their historical books for the meaning of this sign, they found that it portended ‘ decline of power.’ At this information the smoke of amazement ascended into the receptacle of the brains of Naushirvan, and his dismay was much augmented. On that occasion the Mobed of Mobeds— i.e., the chief ecclesiastical dignitary of the Magi—represented that he had during that night seen fleet and obstinate camels in a dream, which were leading Arab horses until they had crossed the Tigris and dispersed in Persia. ...The king of the Beni Sasan— i.e., Naushirvan—has sent thee on account of the trembling of the palace, the decline of power, the extinction of the fires of Persia, and the dream of the Mobed of Mobeds!’ He further said : ‘ As soon as Muhammad the elect—u. w. b.—is sent, and the recital— i.e., reading of the Quran—begins, the river Samavah will flow, and the lake Savah will become exsiccated ; the fire of the chief temple of Persia will be extinguished, the dignity of the Persians, of the Syrians, and of Sattih will cease, i.e., the government of Persia will be destroyed, and Sattih, taking leave from the perishable, will hasten to the eternal abode."

"When the sovereignty came to Yazdgird, he reigned twenty years; then the Arabs entered Iran in great numbers. Yazd-gird did not contend with them in battle. He went to Khurasan and Turkestan and asked for the assistance of horses and men. They killed him there. Yazdgird's son went to India and brought an army and troops. He was slain before coming to Khurasan. The army and troops were destroyed and Iran remained with the Arabs. They promul- gated their own laws of irreligion, dissolved the bonds of the institutions of the men of old and weakened the Mazdaean religion. They brought into use the washing, burying and eating of polluted matter. From the beginning of creation till this day no evil more grievous than this has come, since by reason of their evil deeds distress and desolation and lamentation have made their abode [in Iran]. By reason of their wicked laws and wicked faith, [there is] pestilence and want and other evils. It is stated in the Religion that there shall come an end of their accursed rule."

"It will endure a thousand years. Then those men who are at that time will all become covenant-breakers. One with another they will be revengeful and envious and false. And for that reason the nation of Iran will be delivered up to the Arabs ( tiijfkiin ), and the Arabs will daily grow stronger and will seize district after district. Men will turn to unrighteousness and falsehood .... Much royal treasure and wealth will pass into the hands and possession of enemies .... Ane- ran and Eran will be confounded so that the Iranian will not be 'distinguished from the foreigner; those who are Iranians will turn back to foreign ways."

"The state of affairs now evident is indicative of how Iranian rule has come to an end in the country of Iran, and of the destruction of justice and customs and classes, and of the rule of those with dishevelled hair (Arabs) and the haughty (Turks) and the churchmen (Byzantines). And of the mix- ing together of all three of them, of the being trusted and attaining the highest station with them of the inferior, the petty, the transient and the undistinguished of the age, and the destruction and downfall of excellent and notable men in their time. 211"